marketing

I remember sitting in a conference in Morocco listening to the Ogilvy MD, Matthieu Plassard, as he shared that marketing in Africa was less about selling products and more about solving problems. He highlighted that in a world where the share of wallet is limited, brands need to drive lifestyle solutions instead of products aimed at disposable income. Matthieu’s comment echoed the sentiment I have been hearing from underground conversations in marketing circles. Building solutions for people is fast becoming the most valuable marketing tool that marketers can spend their time doing. Brand love won’t come from lifestyle alignment and it won’t come from fancy content.

It’s always great to look at how celebrities use online marketing to build their brand and career. Over the last few years we have watched as Conan O’Brien receive a seemingly big blow to his career through a fall out with NBC. He has, however, managed to reinvent himself through this fall out, and has successfully used online marketing to rebuild his career. Let’s take a look at the lesson learnt:

Data analysts and marketers historically have not needed to work closely together… today, that has changed. Data analysts have become some of the most valuable people in your marketing team as they can help brands understand consumer motives faster, build intuitive interfaces and trigger customer actions, all by using data effectively.

It was Steve Jobs who coined the phrase, "Computers are like a bicycle for our minds"; suggesting that much like a bicycle, computers would help people move quicker to the destination once you apply effort. Jobs saw the computer as an enhancer to human capacity instead of a replacement.

Gone are the days of promoting your brand, of talking it up as the coolest brand around so that the customer loves you. We are now in the age of the empowered consumer, and these customers are skeptical of traditional marketing tactics, all they see is a gimmick.

The era of voice search is upon us and it should warrant your attention. Search engine optimisation is moving away from keywords and towards something harder for marketers to quantify – conversational search queries.

Historically, product orientated businesses have struggled in social media circles. A focus on product promotion and sales have meant that these social presences have, historically, been very bland and boring. I mean, let’s be honest and acknowledge that a product page on a social network isn’t a top destination for people to go when looking for inspirational content

It’s getting harder and harder for brands to be noticed on social media because of the sheer density of marketing that takes place on the various platforms. We get that. But while there is the need to develop new ways of flourishing on social media, there are some poor marketing practices taking place that really don’t do anyone any good. A key one of these is trendjacking.

With consumers becoming increasingly bored with, cynical or indifferent towards advertising, engaging your customers in a unique way is important to building a good relationship with them. A growing trend in retail is ‘playsumerism’, a type of consumerism that focuses on offering customers something more. Something more than the usual, the expected, the uninvolved. Brands engaging in playsumerism put together campaigns that offer customers life-enhancing experiences, ones that are fun, engaging, unique, surprising, off-beat, or even challenging.